“All is the same here.”

When you don’t create change, chances are things won’t change.

We just moved to another country. Most of our lives in our family are completely different. We’re living massive change every single day over the past few months. I absolutely love every single minute of it.

But I’m a change fanatic. I love it. I think it makes you grow. It doesn’t just let you grow, it forces you to grow. You will grow, you will learn, your horizons will be broadened. All that classic stuff? It’s true.

I’m conflicted about writing this post as I don’t want to “offend” those who stay home where “All is the same here.” (It’s a direct quote from an email from a friend back home.) I truly don’t have an issue with people who don’t move or don’t travel if that’s what makes them happy. I do have an issue if you’re not doing what you’d like to be doing.

Here’s my backup plan if travel or moving or change ever goes awry:

“All is the same here.” In other words, you can safely go back home and all will be the same (or nearly the same). You can go home. You can go back to whatever it was you were doing before you thought change was a good idea.

But even if you do create change, it doesn’t guarantee that things will change.

You have to be open to it. You have to allow it to happen.

I believe that change wants to happen, I believe that we thrive on it, that we actually love it. But it’s scary, it’s different, it’s not what I’m used to. I want the old me. I want life as I knew it.

Give it a try. Do something different than you’re used to. It can be tiny. It can be brushing your teeth with the other hand. But give it a shot and see how it feels. It will probably feel different.

That’s a good thing. Different is learning. Change is progress.

Here’s the nasty little secret. Sorry.

If you start change, you can’t actually really go back. Well, sure, you can go back but it won’t really be the same. Well, actually, it might be the same, but you won’t be the same. Yeah, sorry. That’s what happens.

Then you go back to what you think you wanted and it’s not the same as it was because you’ve grown, because you’ve progressed beyond where you used to be. Because you’ve changed.

Things don’t change. Places don’t change. People change.

“All is the same here.”

So where are you?

This is what change looks like. Basketball practice is in a forest. [Doorn, Holland]